Heuristic caching to personalize applications

ABSTRACT

Heuristic caching techniques are used to improve application usability within the constraints of computing resources. A user&#39;s behavior in connection with an application is recorded and used to intelligently determine which transitions of a user interface of the application to cache. In addition, the user may have one or more characteristics. Such characteristics may also be used to identify other users so that the other users&#39; behavior in connection with the application can be used for intelligently determining which transitions of the user interface to cache.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Users may interact with applications through user interfaces. The userinterfaces may include various components for changing the state of theapplication. A user interface may, for example, provide numerous optionsfor navigating the interface and/or processing data. Often, userinteraction with a user interface causes the interface to change state.For example, a user selecting a button or other element may cause theuser interface to change from a current display screen to a new displayscreen having different options available to the user.

Many applications are resource intensive in the sense that changes to aninterface's state may cause a non-trivial use of computing resources. Asone example, many applications utilize web-based technologies. A usermay interact with a browser or other application executing on a clientdevice that communicates with a server device. The server device mayrespond to user requests with information that allows the user'sclient-side application to update appropriately. The server itself maycontact other servers, such as database servers, to obtain informationneeded to properly respond to the client requests. As a result, resourceintensive applications often tax the various related computer systems.From the client's perspective, delays may be noticed where the clienthas to wait for a server response and/or where the client needs toprocess data before a transition to a new user interface state can becompleted. Delays and other issues may be exacerbated in variousenvironments, such as in environments where multiple clientssimultaneously interact with a server.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following presents a simplified summary of some embodiments of theinvention in order to provide a basic understanding of the invention.This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is notintended to identify key/critical elements of the invention or todelineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to presentsome embodiments of the invention in a simplified form. as a prelude tothe more detailed description that is presented later,

Techniques for heuristic caching of application data are disclosedherein. In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method of heuristiccaching is disclosed, The computer-implemented method may be used tofacilitate navigation in an electronic environment. The method mayinclude: identifying a plurality of potential user interface transitionsavailable to a user; selecting, based at least in part on data specificto the user and data regarding a plurality of other users, a subset ofthe identified potential user interface transitions available to theuser; and causing one or more actions to be taken that result inacceleration of one or more transitions of the selected subset uponselection by the user.

In the computer-implemented method, identifying the plurality ofpotential user interface transitions available to the user may includeidentifying, from a current user interface state, a plurality ofselectable user interface elements, where each element is selectable tocause navigation to a corresponding user interface state. The dataspecific to the user may be a user type and the data regarding theplurality of other users may comprise data aggregated based at least inpart on past navigational behavior of one or more users having the usertype. The data specific to the user may also include data determinedbased at least in part on past navigational behavior of the user. In anembodiment, selecting the subset of the identified potential userinterface transitions includes: ordering the plurality of user interfacetransitions based at least in part on the data specific to the user andthe data regarding the plurality of other users; and selecting thesubset based at least in part on positions in the ordered plurality ofuser interface transitions of members of the subset. The potential userinterface transitions may be transitions of an application utilized byan organization and the user and the other users may use the applicationin connection with operations of the organization.

In addition to the foregoing, a computer system for facilitatingnavigation is disclosed. The computer system may include one or moreprocessors and memory including instructions that, when executed by theone or more processors, cause the one or more processors facilitatenavigation. The computer system may, for instance: identify potentialuser interface transitions available from a particular state of a userinterface being used by a user; select, based at least in part on dataspecific to the user and data regarding a plurality of other users, asubset of the identified potential user interface transitions; and causeacceleration of one or more transitions of the selected subset uponselection by the user.

Causing acceleration of the one or more transitions of the selectedsubset may include, prior to selection by the user of a particulartransition of the one or more transitions, causing data for theparticular transition to be cached. Selecting the subset of theidentified potential user interface transitions may include: identifyinga characteristic of the user; and identifying the plurality of users asusers sharing the identified characteristic; and scoring, based at leastin part on navigational behavior of the plurality of users in connectionwith the user interface, the identified potential user interfacetransitions to produce scores corresponding to the identified potentialuser interface transitions. Selecting the subset of the identifiedpotential user interface transitions may be based at least in part onthe scores. In some embodiments, the user interface is configured toaccess a web-based application. Selecting the subset of the identifiedpotential user interface transitions may include identifying a set ofusers that have navigated the user interface to the particular state.Selecting the subset of the identified potential user interfacetransitions may be based at least in part on behavior of the identifiedset of users that have navigated the user interface to the particularstate. Selecting the subset of the identified potential user interfacetransitions may include determining a number of user interfacetransitions to cache based at least in part on an activity measurementof the user Identifying the potential user interface transitions mayinclude accessing a model of an application operated by user interactionwith the user interface.

In an embodiment, one or more non-transitory computer-readable storagemedia having collectively stored thereon instructions executable by oneor more processors of a computer system is disclosed. The instructionsmay include instructions for identifying potential user interfacetransitions available from a particular state of a user interface;instructions for selecting, based at least in part on data specific to auser of the user interface and data regarding a plurality of otherusers, a subset of the identified potential user interface transitions;and instructions for causing acceleration of one or more transitions ofthe selected subset upon selection by the user.

Causing acceleration of one or more transitions of the selected subsetincludes caching data for the one or more transitions prior to theselection by the user. Selecting the subset of the identified potentialuser interface transitions may include identifying a characteristic ofthe user and identifying the plurality of other users as users sharingthe characteristic with the user. The characteristic, in someembodiments, is a role of the user in an organization, The one or morecomputer-readable media may include instructions for determining, basedat least in part on an activity measurement of the user in connectionwith the user interface, a value determinative of a size of the subset,the subset being in accordance with the value. The value may be a numberof transitions to cache. The activity measurement may be based at leastin part on a frequency of transitions caused by interaction with theuser interface by the user.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and advantages of the presentinvention, reference should be made to the ensuing detailed descriptionand accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of an environment which may be usedto implement various embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of a representation of a model ofan application, in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative example of a user interface of anapplication in an illustrative state, in accordance with at least oneembodiment.

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative example of a process for heuristic caching,in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative example of a process for utilizing a cache,in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 6 shows an illustrative example of a process for heuristic caching,in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows an illustrative example of a user activity table, inaccordance with at east one embodiment.

FIG. 8 shows an illustrative example of a process for determining anamount to cache for a user, in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows an illustrative example of a process for using other useractivity to perform heuristic caching, in accordance with at least oneembodiment.

FIG. 10 shows an illustrative example of a graphical representation ofcaching heuristic data, in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 11 shows a diagrammatic representation of a computer system thatmay be used to implement various aspects of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, specificdetails are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding ofembodiments of the invention. However, it be apparent that the inventionmay be practiced without these specific details.

The following description describes an embodiment of the presentinvention in the web application domain. However, the scope of thepresent invention is not restricted to web applications, but may beapplied to other domains or applications, For example, any domain orapplication where caching of data provides an advantage may make use ofthe present invention. Examples of domains in which embodiments of thepresent invention may be used include, generally, user interfaces thatutilize data that are not immediately accessible and, therefore, wherecaching can improve usability of the interfaces.

In general, embodiments of the present invention provide techniques forusing heuristic techniques for caching data to improve the usability ofuser interfaces, such as user interfaces from web applications,Generally, the techniques described herein utilize data about a user ofa user interface and/or other users to make intelligent decisions aboutwhich data to cache. Such techniques may increase the likelihood thatnecessary data is readily available despite constraints of computingresources used in connection with operation of the user interface,

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of an environment 100 that may beused to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure. In theenvironment 100, one or more clients 102 are used to enablecorresponding users to use an application. The clients may beimplemented by computer systems that access an application server 104over a suitable communications network such as an intranet, theInternet, and/or a combination of communications networks. The clients102 may be any suitable type of computer system such as a personalcomputer, notebook computer, tablet computing device, mobile computingdevice, and generally any device configured to communicate over anetwork and display application content. The clients may be hardwaredevices or may be virtual clients. The application server 104 may be aserver computer system configured to execute one or more applicationsand to receive and respond to electronic requests submitted inconnection with operation of the one or more applications. Theapplications may be, for example, web-based applications.

In an embodiment, the clients 102 interact with the application server104 via a caching proxy 106. The caching proxy may be a computer systemconfigured to cache application data in accordance with the variousembodiments described herein. As will be described in more detail below,the caching proxy 106 may preload application data such that, when suchdata is needed by the clients 102, the caching proxy has such dataimmediately accessible without a need to obtain that data from anothersource such as the application server 104. As discussed below, requestsfrom a client 102 may be routed to the caching proxy 106 to enable thecaching proxy 106 to determine whether it has data responsive to therequests and to provide such data when available.

The application data may be stored in one or more data stores 110accessible to the application server 104. To cache data, the cachingproxy 106 may submit requests to the application server 104 forapplication data before such data is needed by one or more of theclients 102. The application server may respond to such requests byaccessing application data from the data storage 110 and providing thedata to the caching proxy 106 which may store the accessed data in acache 112. When a client 102 makes a request for which application datais stored in the cache 112, the caching proxy 106 may obtain theapplication data from the cache 112 and provide it to the client 102. Asnoted, if such data is not in the cache 112, the caching proxy maysubmit a request to the application server 104, which may obtain thedata from the data stores 110 and provide the data to the caching proxy106 to provide to the client 102 that made the request.

In order to intelligently determine which data to store in the cache112, the caching proxy may utilize data about one or more users of theapplication such as described in more detail below. Such user data maybe stored in a data store 108. As will be described in more detail, thecaching proxy may, for a particular use of a client 102, storeinformation about the user's past activity in connection with theapplication and use that information in order to determine whichapplication data is most likely to be accessed by the client. The datain the data store 108 may also include data regarding other users inorder to enhance the accuracy of caching decisions. For example, a userof a client 102 may have certain characteristics. The caching proxy mayaccess data regarding past behavior of other users having similarcharacteristics in order to determine which data to store in the cache112. As an illustrative example, a user of a client 102 may have aparticular role within an organization. The caching proxy may utilizedata in the data store 108 regarding past behavior of other users withthe same role.

It should be noted that environment 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 is dividedinto separate components for the purpose of illustration and numerousvariations are considered to be within the scope of the presentdisclosure. For example, the environment illustrated in FIG. 1 showsclients that are separate from both a caching proxy 106 and anapplication server 104. Some embodiments may employ differentconfigurations. Various components of the environment in FIG. 1 may becombined, for example. For instance, activities described as beingperformed by the caching proxy 106 may be performed by one or more ofthe clients 102. That is, clients 102 may, in some embodiments, beconfigured to make their own caching decisions and may cache their ownapplication data accordingly. The clients 102 may, for instance, cacheapplication data at convenient times, such as when computing resourcesof the client are idle or at least not fully utilized. In suchembodiments, when the clients make their own caching decisions, userdata for making such decisions may be stored locally at the clients 102or remotely such as in a central repository accessible through webservice or another suitable manner.

As another example of variations considered within the scope of thepresent disclosure, actions performed by the caching proxy 106 and theapplication server 104 may be performed by a single device. That is, theapplication server 104 may make caching decisions for one or moreclients of the application server 104. Numerous other variations arealso considered to be within the scope of the present disclosure. Forexample, FIG. 1 illustrates an application server 104 executing anapplication for clients 102. However, the clients themselves may executethe application. Caching decisions may be made by the clients 102 or byseparate computing devices such as illustrated in FIG. 1. in addition tothe variations described excursively herein, other variations within thescope of the present disclosure may include environments that includemore components than illustrated in the environment 100 of FIG. 1.

In an embodiment, an application has multiple possible states. Forexample, web-based applications may comprise numerous pages. A user mayinteract with the application by navigating from page to page. Each pagemay correspond to one or more states of the application. For example,upon first navigating into a page of an application, the page may have acertain form. The form may be personalized to the user using theapplication, although it may have general characteristics that arecommon to most users such as a common format. States of a page of anapplication may vary according to the various activities of the user.For instance, the user may use the application to make various queriesabout data accessible to the application. For instance, a page of ahuman resources application may allow a user on a page of an applicationto view various employment records of employees within an organization.That same employee may navigate to a different page of the applicationto perform other activities so as to generate reports regarding humanresources data of the organization and the like.

FIG. 2 accordingly shows a representation of states of an application inaccordance with an embodiment. In particular, FIG. 2 represents thestates of an application as a graph in the mathematical sense where thegraph comprises nodes connected by edges. Each node of the graph maycorrespond to a possible state of an application or a set of states. Anedge between two nodes indicates that a user of the application maycause the application to transition between corresponding states. In anembodiment, the graph is a directed graph whereby edges between nodes ofthe graph have a direction indicated by an arrow. Thus, an arrow betweentwo nodes of the graph indicates that a state transition is possiblefrom the state represented by the node of the tail of the arrow to thestate represented by the head of the arrow. The arrows may have twoheads indicating that the transition is reversible. An example of areversible transition is a transition whereby a user in a web-basedapplication selects the link and is able to navigate to a landing pageof the link. The user may, for instance, by hitting a back button of aweb browser, navigate back from the landing page to the page that hasthe link that was selected.

The graph as illustrated in FIG. 2 includes a root node 202 which may bea state of an application being processed in accordance with variousembodiments of the present disclosure. The state may be, for example,the current state of the application as presented to the user. The statemay also be a future state to which the user is able to navigate,perhaps through an intermediate state. In this particular example, theroot node corresponds to a state from which transitions may be made toother states represented by nodes 204. Each of the nodes 204 also maycorrespond to states from which transitions may be made to other statesrepresented by nodes 206. In FIG. 2, graph 200 is represented by a tree.However, numerous variations are considered as being within the scope ofthe present disclosure. For example, the graph may include cycles. Auser may navigate, for instance, from a state represented by the node202 to the state represented by the node 204 and back. As anotherexample, the user may navigate from a state represented by the node 202to the state represented by the node 204 to another state represented bythe node 206, and from the state represented by the node 206 to thestate represented by the node 202. As yet another example, the user maynavigate from the state represented by the node 202 to a staterepresented by the node 204 to another state represented by a nodelabeled by 204.

As noted, states of an application may not be static. That is, when in aparticular state, an application interface may have multiplepresentations. For instance, a user interface may have controls thatallow a user to selectively show and/or hide data. Scroll bars areexamples of such controls as are drop-down menus and other controls thatallow a user to control the appearance of an interface in a particularstate. In addition, a state of a user interface may include dynamiccontent, such as audio or video which changes over time and contentwhich changes according to certain user interactions with the userinterface.

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative example of an application as presented to auser, such as a user of a client 102, as described above in connectionwith FIG. 1. The application as illustrated in FIG. 3 is a web-basedapplication and, in this particular instance, the web-based applicationis accessed using a browser application executing on a client'scomputing device. The application itself may execute on a serverseparate from the client's computing device, such as an applicationserver described above in connection with FIG. 1. The application shownin FIG. 3 is in a particular state and has an appearance, which may bethe appearance on a screen of a computing device. In this particularexample, a presentation of data appears in the middle of the screen.

The application includes numerous links and other user interfacecontrols which allow a user to operate the application. For instance,the application in this example includes numerous tabs 302. The tab inthis particular example is a user interface element that is selectableto cause a different screen to appear where each screen has acorresponding theme. For example, in this example, the tabs include ahome tab, an accounts tab, a contact tab and others. In this example,the home tab 302 is selected, causing the representation of theapplication to appear as it does in FIG. 3. The user may select theaccounts tab 302 to access various information about user accounts.Selecting the accounts tab 302, for example, may cause the applicationto change to a state in which the various user accounts may be accessed.The accounts, for example, may be listed and selectable to navigate toinformation specific to a selected account. Search and othercapabilities may also be provided by the application. In this manner,each of the tabs 302 corresponds to a state of the application.

In embodiments where data is retrieved over a network, user interactionwith a user interface of the application may cause electroniccommunications to occur. For example, when a user interface control isselected by a user (such as by manipulating an input device), theclient's device may transmit an electronic message (such as a hypertexttransfer protocol (HTTP) request) to an appropriate computer system(such as a caching proxy or application server) to obtain correspondinginformation. When some or all of a response is received, the client'sdevice may. update a display accordingly.

Other selectable user interface elements are also provided in the sampleof FIG. 3. For example, various hyperlinks 304 are provided. Thehyperlinks may cause the application to navigate to pages correspondingwith corresponding information. For instance, a “My Performance”hyperlink 304 may cause the application to navigate to a page thatdisplays various statistical information and/or representations that arespecific to the user of the application. In addition, the applicationmay include additional tabs 306 which are specific to the current stateof the application, whereas the tabs 302 described above may be globalto the application. Thus, by selecting the home tab 302, various tabs306 specific to the home tab 302 may appear.

Selectable elements on the user interface may include elements otherthan tabs, such as various links to enable the application to performvarious functions. For example, the application shown in FIG. 3 includesnumerous links under a “Create” category 308. For example, selecting anaccount link under the “Create” category 308 may cause the userinterface to change to allow the user to enter information for a newuser account.

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative example of a process 400 for performingheuristic caching in accordance with an embodiment. Some or all of theprocess 400 (or any other processes described herein, or variationsand/or combinations thereof) may be performed under the control of oneor more computer systems configured with executable instructions and maybe implemented as code (e.g., executable instructions, one or morecomputer programs, or one or more applications) executing collectivelyon one or more processors, by hardware, or combinations thereof. Thecode may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example,in the form of a computer program comprising a plurality of instructionsexecutable by one or more processors. The computer-readable storagemedium may be non-transitory.

In an embodiment, the process 400 includes identifying 402 a userinterface state. The user interface state may be, for example, a currentstate of the application or a state to which the application may betransitioned directly or indirectly. When the state is identified 402,potential user interface transitions from the identified user interfacestate may then be identified 404. For example, referring to FIG. 2, ifthe identified state corresponds to the node 202, sonic or all statescorresponding to the nodes 204 may be identified. Identifying thepotential user interface transitions may be performed in any suitablemanner. For example, for some applications, a graph or other model ofthe application may be known in advance. The application may have apredetermined number of states represented by a graph and identifyingthe potential user interface transitions may be performed by identifyingtransitions according to the graph, Transitions may be identified, forexample, by identifying which nodes of the graph are directly connectedto the node corresponding to the identified state, As another example,identifying the potentially user interface transitions may be performeddynamically, such as by scraping the identified user interface state. Ina web-based application, scraping may be performed by analyzing a pageof the application and extracting hyperlinks and other user interfaceelements that are selectable to cause astute transition. Scraping may beperformed intelligently, such as by ignoring certain transitions. Forinstance, an application may have hyperlinks to external contentproviders, such as a search engine, news content provider and the likeand such hyperlinks may be ignored.

In an embodiment, the process 400 includes accessing 406 user-specificnavigational history data. The user-specific navigational history datamay be data regarding how the user has interacted with the applicationin the past. The history application data may indicate, for example, thefrequencies of user interface state transitions from the identified userinterface state. As an example, if the user's role within anorganization causes the user to frequently transition to a particularstate and rarely transition to a different state, the user-specificnavigational history data may include statistical information thatindicates the relative frequency of such transitions.

In an embodiment, the process 400 also includes accessing 408 aggregateduser navigational history data. The aggregated user navigational historydata may be data that indicates the frequency of the user interfacetransitions from the identified state as measured over a period of timewith respect to multiple users. The multiple users may be determined inmany different ways depending on the specific embodiments beingemployed. For example, aggregated user navigational history data mayaggregate data for users of the application within an organization orperhaps a larger set of users of the application. As another example,the aggregated user navigational history data may include data for aselect subset of users for the application, such as users having acharacteristic that is the same as the user of the application. Forinstance, if the user has a particular role within the organization, theaggregated user navigational history data may include data aggregatedaccording to the past navigational behavior of users having the samerole. Characteristics, such as roles, may be stored in a data store in amanner associating the characteristics with the users, thereby enablinga determination of what characteristic(s) a user has and which usersshare that/those characteristic(s). Numerous variations are consideredbeing within the scope of the present disclosure. For example, theaggregated user navigational history data may include data aggregatedfrom various subsets of users of the application defined by a particularcharacteristic where the data for particular subsets may be weighteddifferently. For example, data for users with the same role as the userof the application may be rated more heavily than data for users withinthe same department, but having different roles.

In addition, the universe of users from which data is aggregated mayalso vary according to various embodiments. For example, in anembodiment, the user-specific navigational history data is aggregatedfor all users within an organization. However, different levels ofgranularity may also be used in accordance with the present disclosure,For example, if the application is used in multiple organizations, acentral service may aggregate such data across users of multipleorganizations. Similarly, if the application is used by numerousdepartments within an organization, the aggregated user navigationalhistory data may be aggregated only for users within a department orother subset of users within the organization.

With user-specific navigational history data and aggregated usernavigational history data having been accessed, in an embodiment, theprocess 400 includes using 410 the user-specific navigational historydata and aggregated user navigational history data to select a subset ofthe potential user interface transitions, In an embodiment, the subsetis selected to be a subset of the user interface transitions thatincludes one or more transitions that are most likely to be needed basedon a calculation of what the user is likely to do. Once the subset ofpotential user interface transitions is identified 410, the data for theselected user interface transitions may be cached 412. For example,referring to FIG. 1, the caching proxy 106 may request data for theselected user interface transitions from the application server 104,which may access such data stores 110 and provide to the caching proxy106 to store in the cache 112. Other components, such as the client orapplication server, may cache in addition to or as an alternative to acaching proxy.

In some embodiments, various levels of caching may be performed. Forexample, it may be desirable to cache user interface transitions thatare not directly available from a current user interface state. Forexample, referring to FIG. 2, if the current user interface statecorresponds to the node 202, it may be desirable to cache thetransitions from some or all of the states represented by the nodes 204to some of the states represented by the nodes 206. Such caching may,for example, cause needed data to be available should the user quicklytransition. from the state represented by the node 202 to a staterepresented by anode 206. The user may, for instance, navigate to astate represented by a node 204 and quickly navigate to a staterepresented by a node 206.

Accordingly, in an embodiment, the process 400 includes determining 414whether to process an additional user interface state. If it isdetermined 414 to process an additional user interface state, thenadditional user interface state is identified 402, such as describedabove and the process 400 may proceed accordingly as described above.If, however, it is determined 414 to not process an additional state,then additional performance of the process 400 may depend on how theuser interacts with the application. A determination whether to processanother state may depend at least in part on various characteristics ofa computing environment implementing an embodiment of the invention. Forexample, a determination whether to process another state may be madebased at least in part on the number of users currently utilizing anapplication and/or caching proxy (such as a number of users with aconnection to the caching proxy and/or to an application server), anavailable amount of storage space in a cache, a frequency at which auser (or other users) are causing the application to change states, andother information.

As indicated in FIG. 4, in an embodiment, regardless of whether or notit is determined 414 to process additional user interface state, userinterface transitions are monitored 416 and if a user interfacetransition is detected 418, a corresponding user interface state may beidentified 402 and the process 400 may proceed as described above. Thus,detection of a user interface transition may interrupt performance ofthe process 400 to cause the process 400 to restart, accordingly, sothat applicable user interface transitions are cached. Generally, theprocess 400 may include continuous monitoring of user interfacetransitions with the process 400 being updated accordingly so as toprocess current state data.

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative example of a process for providingapplication data in accordance with an embodiment. The process 500 maybe performed, for example, by a computing device that caches applicationdata, such as the caching proxy described above in connection withFIG. 1. n an embodiment, the process 500 includes receiving 502 arequest to change the user interface state. The request may be receivedin any suitable manner which may depend on the specific embodiments inwhich the process 500 is being performed. For example, in theenvironment 100 described above in connection with FIG. 1, a cachingproxy may receive an HTTP request from a client pursuant to a user ofthe client having used a browser or other application to select ahyperlink of the application, the application being configured such thatselection of the hyperlink causes change of the user interface state.

Upon receipt of the request to change the user interface state, a userinterface cache for data necessary to transition the user interface ischecked 504. For instance, the caching proxy described above inconnection with FIG. 1 may check the cache to determine whether the datais already cached. A determination may be made 506 whether cache data isavailable. lf it is determined 506 that cache data is available, thendata from the cache may be obtained 508. If it is determined that datafrom the cache is not available, then data may be obtained 510 fromanother source. For example, referring to FIG. 1, if the caching proxydetermines that cached. data is not available, then the caching proxymay submit a request to the application server to enable the applicationto respond with the appropriate data. The caching proxy may simplyforward the request from the client to the application server or it mayreconfigure the request as appropriate depending on the specificembodiment. Once the data is obtained, either from the cache or from theother source, the obtained data may be provided 512 to enable the userinterface to transition according to the received 502 request. In theexample of a web application, an electronic document corresponding tothe new state of the user interface may be provided to client.Similarly, data for changing a portion of a user interface pagedisplayed on the client may be provided to the client.

As with all processes described herein, the process 500 or variations ofthe process 500 are considered as being within the scope of the presentdisclosure. For instance, in some embodiments, a user interface statestransition may require both data from a cache and data that is notcached. For instance, certain data to be displayed on a user interfacemay be available from the cache, whereas it may be necessary to obtainother data from a different source. In such instances, the process 500may be modified such that the data is obtained accordingly and providedto the client for display to the user. A caching proxy or other devicemay collect the data from the cache and from the other source andprovide all the data at once to the client or it may dynamically providethe cache data and then once available, the data from the other source.

As discussed above, various embodiments of the present disclosure arerelated to caching data for applications based at least in part on pastuser behavior, such as behavior of the user using the application and/orother users, FIG. 6, accordingly, shows an illustrative example of aprocess 600 for one manner in which such caching may be done. in anembodiment, the process 600 includes identifying 602 a current user U. Acurrent user may be, for example, a user of an application for whichcaching is being performed. In addition, the process 600 may includeidentifying 604 a current state S for the user U. A user type T may alsobe identified 606 for the user U. In an embodiment, the process 600includes identifying 608 allowed states from the current state S.

As described below, a device participating in performance of the process600 may process the allowed states to determine which states to cache.For instance, in an embodiment, the process 600 inc hides identifying610 a first allowed state. Upon identifying the first allowed state, apreliminary user transition score may be calculated 612. In anembodiment, the preliminary user transition score is a score that isbased at least in part on the current state, the allowed state and aweighting factor identified in the drawing as BW. The preliminary usertransition score may indicate, for instance, a historically measuredfrequency of that transition relative to transitions to other allowedstates.

In an embodiment, the process 600 may include calculating a transitionscore 614. A transition score in an embodiment is a score that is based,at least in part, on the preliminary user transition score and atransition score for users of the identified user type T. A weightingfactor, indicated in the drawing as TW may also be used. A determinationmay be made 616 whether there are additional allowed states and, ifthere are, the next allowed state is identified 610 and a transitionscore is calculated for the next allowed state as described above. Asnoted above, the transition score may be based on behavior of numeroususers of numerous types shared with the user U. Weighting may be used tofavor certain types of users (e.g. users with the same role) over othertypes of users (e.g. users simply in the same organization, department,and others).

Once preliminary user transition scores and transition scores for theallowed states have been calculated, a determination may be made 616that there are no additional allowed states to process. The transitionsmay be sorted 617 by corresponding transition scores. The transitionshaving the highest transition scores may be cached 620. The number oftransitions selected may vary according to the various embodiments. Forexample, in some cases, a number of allowable transitions up to apredetermined number may be cached. As another example, a number oftransitions cached may be a dynamic number which may depend on otherinformation, such as a rate at which a user is utilizing an application,which may be a rate at which a user is causing the user interface tochange states. Other information that may be used to determine how manytransitions to cache may include the size of a cache, the availablestorage space remaining in the cache, activity of other users, and otherrelevant information. Other information, such as a user's historicalactivity level in connection with the application, other users' historicactivity level in connection with the application, and other informationregarding past measured activity in connection with the application maybe used.

One way by which determining the number of user interface transitions tocache may involve use of a user activity table. FIG. 7, accordingly,shows an illustrative example of a. user activity table 700 inaccordance with various embodiments. In an embodiment, the user activitytable 700 organizes data representative of user activity of one or moreusers of an application. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the useractivity table 700 includes a user column, the entries of whichcorrespond to an identifier of a particular user. The user identifiermay be a unique identifier, of a user, such as user name or otherinformation that identifies the user. A time column has entriescorresponding to transition times of various transitions made by theusers whose identifiers are stored in the table 700. The time oftransition may be the time the transition was requested, the time thetransition was made and/or other related time. A “from” column and a“to” column indicate the states from and to which the transitions weremade at the corresponding times. On this particular example, the useractivity table is a correspondence to a web based application and, as aresult, the entries in the “from” and “to” columns correspond to uniformresource locators (URLs) of the corresponding user interface states.

FIG. 8 shows an illustrative example of a process 800 that may be usedto determine an amount of data to cache based at least in part ontransition frequency of a user. In an embodiment, a user activity tablefor a session is accessed 802. A user activity table for a session maybe similar to the table 700 described above in connection with FIG. 7,but specific to one user during a current session. The user activitytable for the session may be, in some embodiments, a sub-table of thetable 700 described above in FIG. 7 and may be accessed by extractingthe sub-table from the table 700. Generally, the user activity table (orother encoding of user activity) for the session may be accessed in anysuitable manner. In an embodiment, the process 800 includes calculating804 a number of transitions for the session which may be the number ofstate transitions made during the transitions by the user. A transitionfrequency may be calculated 806 based at least in part on the number oftransitions and session lengths in order to give a number thatrepresents how active the user is using the application. An amount tocache may be determined 808 based at least in part on the calculatedtransition frequency. Generally, a system being used in connection withthe process 800 may be configured such that the higher the transitionfrequency, the more data is cached. In this manner, data is more likelyto be cached when needed by an active user whereby less is cachedrelatively for inactive users because such users are less likely torequire certain data within a short period of time. The amount of cachemay also be determined on the transition frequency relative to othertransition frequencies of other users currently using the applicationand/or expected to use the application.

In many instances, certain user interface transitions are more desirableto cache than others based on the likelihood that such transitions willbe required during the use of an application. FIG. 9, accordingly, showsan illustrative example of a process 900 that can be used to boosttransition scores for certain user interface transitions based on whatother users have done in connection with the application. in anembodiment, the process 900 includes identifying 902 a current state Sof a user U. In an embodiment, a path P a user took to arrive at thecurrent state S is identified 904, where a path may be a collection ofnodes in a graph and the edges connecting those nodes. In an embodiment,the process 900 includes identifying 906 other users who have used theapplication and, as a result, have arrived at the current state S. Adata store may store such information in a database that associatesusers with states.

Paths that maximally overlap the path P are selected 908, in accordancewith an embodiment. Selecting the paths that maximally overlap the pathP may be performed by selecting paths of other users that, relative toother paths including the state S, have higher numbers of common nodeswith the path P, including the state S. Selecting the paths thatmaximally overlap the path P may also include identifying those pathsthat, relative to other paths, include the most consecutive nodesleading to the state S that are common to the path P. The number ofpaths may be predetermined, or may be determined in other ways, such asby identifying paths that have more than a predetermined number of nodesin common with P and/or paths that satisfy one or more conditions forinclusion. Once the paths are selected, the next transitions from thestate S for the selected paths are identified 910. Transition scores forthe identified next transitions are boosted accordingly. For example,when calculating a transition score, numerical values corresponding tothe identified 910 paths may be multiplied by a number greater than oneto increase their numerical value relative to other scores, Similarly,numerical values corresponding to paths other than the identified 910paths may be multiplied by a numerical value less than one to reducetheir relative effect on the calculation of a transition score.Generally, any suitable way of causing the identified paths to have agreater influence on scoring may be used.

As noted above, the size of a cache may be determined dynamically andintelligently. Various embodiments of the present disclosure involvedecisions regarding management of a cache. In an embodiment, a systememploying various techniques described herein may use a setting, T,which provides a soft limit on how many items, in total, the cache cancontain. The system may also utilize tuning parameters, LAD and LBD,where LAD represents look-ahead depth and LBD represents look-hackdepth. The LAD and LBD values may correspond to how many levels ofcaching are to be performed for a user. Generally, for the sake ofefficiency, the LAD and LBD parameters may be allocated in a manner suchthat a user with a more active session (i.e. with a higher rate oftransitions) is given a larger percentage of the cache than will a userwith a less active session (i.e. a lower rate of transitions).

In an embodiment, a User Activity table, such as illustrated in FIG. 7is maintained. The table may be ordered by user and time, although otherorganizations of the table's (or other data structure's) contents may beused. Using this table, transitions per unit of time (e.g. per minute)are calculated, in an embodiment.

In an embodiment, a number of items to allocate for each active user isdetermined such that the mean, M, number of items allocated per user isT/U, where U is the number of active users. In particular, the number ofitems for each user may be allocated to minimize (or otherwise reduce)the allocation for inactive users, and increase the allocation foractive users while respecting T as a soft constraint. To do this, avalue A for each active user may be calculated, where A may be atransition rate (transitions per unit time) since the cache was lastbalanced. Ranges (referred to herein as B ranges) may be created, whereB=N+LAD+LBD, where N is a numerical value, in an embodiment, N is 3,although other values may be used. Each range represents a span ofactivity levels.

The number of users that fit into each range may then be counted and ahistogram of activity levels, represented by B bins may be created.Using this histogram, in an embodiment, the probability density function(PDF) and/or cumulative distribution function (CDF) is determined. ThePDF and/or CDF may be used to guide the cache allocation. For example,an assumption may be made that the area under the PDF curve isapproximately equal to the number of samples, S, to form a heuristic.This may rely on the assumption that S is substantially less than T.

In an embodiment, a rectangle of width B and height H, such that B*H=2Sis determined. H is then equal to 2S/B and the diagonal from B[0] toB[−1] has slope H/B, and the resulting triangles each have an area of S.The “lower” triangle crosses B bins, creating B component areas. Thepercentage of S that each component area represents may then becalculated. These percentages may then be used to distribute the T itemsacross the components. The result, in this illustrative example, is thatas the bin number (i.e. the activity level) increases, the users in thatbin are allocated a larger percentage of T. An illustration of thisexample is provided in FIG. 10. As shown in FIG. 10, the cachedistribution is calculated such that the curve labeled “CacheDistribution” begins at the point (0,1) and increases (in this examplelinearly) so that, at a value of 8 on the horizontal axis, the areaunder the Cache Distribution curve approximates the area under the curvelabeled “Users in Range.”

FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of a computer system 1100 that maybe used to practice an embodiment of the present invention. Computersystem 1100 may serve as a client device, caching proxy, applicationserver, or other device. As shown in FIG. 11, computer system 1100includes a processor 1102 that communicates with a number of peripheralsubsystems via a bus subsystem 1104. These peripheral subsystems mayinclude a storage subsystem 1106, comprising a memory subsystem 1108 anda file storage subsystem 1110, user interface input devices 1112, userinterface output devices 1114, and a network interface subsystem 1116.

Bus subsystem 1104 provides a mechanism for letting the variouscomponents and subsystems of computer system 1100 communicate with eachother as intended. Although bus subsystem 1104 is shown schematically asa single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilizemultiple busses.

Network interface subsystem 1116 provides an interface to other computersystems, networks, and portals. Network interface subsystem 1116 servesas an interface for receiving data from and transmitting data to othersystems from computer system 1100.

User interface input devices 1112 may include a keyboard, pointingdevices such as a mouse, trackball, touchpad, or graphics tablet, ascanner, a barcode scanner, a touch screen incorporated into thedisplay, audio input devices such as voice recognition systems,microphones, and other types of input devices. In general, use of theterm “input device” is intended to include all possible types of devicesand mechanisms for inputting information to computer system 1100. A usermay use an input device to navigate a user interface which has statetransitions cached according to an embodiment of the invention.

User interface output devices 1114 may include a display subsystem, aprinter, a fax machine, or non-visual displays such as audio outputdevices, etc. The display subsystem may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), aflat-panel device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), or aprojection device. In general, use of the term “output device” isintended to include all possible types of devices and mechanisms foroutputting information from computer system 1100. Presentations of auser interface may be provided to a user using an output device 1114.

Storage subsystem 1106 provides a computer-readable medium for storingthe basic programming and data constructs that provide the functionalityof the present invention. Software (programs, code modules,instructions) that when executed by a processor provide thefunctionality of the present invention may be stored in storagesubsystem 1106. These software modules or instructions may be executedby processor(s) 1102. Storage subsystem 1106 may also provide arepository for storing data used in accordance with the presentinvention, for example, the data stored in the diagnostic datarepository. For example, storage subsystem 1106 provides a storagemedium for persisting one or more ontologies. Storage subsystem 1106 maycomprise memory subsystem 1108 and file/disk storage subsystem 1110.

Memory subsystem 1108 may include a number of memories including a mainrandom access memory (RAM) 1118 for storage of instructions and dataduring program execution and a read only memory (ROM) 1120 in whichfixed instructions are stored. File storage subsystem 1110 providespersistent (non-volatile) storage for program and data files, and mayinclude a hard disk drive, a floppy disk drive along with associatedremovable media, a Compact Disk Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) drive, anoptical drive, removable media cartridges, and other like storage media.Memory may also be accessible over a network, which may be, forinstance, an Internet or intranet.

Computer system 1100 can be of various types including a personalcomputer, a portable computer, a tablet computer, a mobile communicationdevice, a workstation, a network computer, a mainframe, a kiosk, aserver or any other data processing system. Due to the ever-changingnature of computers and networks, the description of computer system1100 depicted in FIG. 11 is intended only as a specific example forpurposes of illustrating the preferred embodiment of the computersystem. Many other configurations having more or fewer components thanthe system depicted in FIG. 11 are possible.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described,various modifications, alterations, alternative constructions, andequivalents are also encompassed within the scope of the invention.Embodiments of the present invention are not restricted to operationwithin certain specific data processing environments, but are free tooperate within a plurality of data processing environments.Additionally, although embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed using a particular series of transactions and steps, it shouldbe apparent to those skilled in the art that the scope of the presentinvention is not limited to the described series of transactions andsteps.

Further, while embodiments of the present invention have been describedusing a particular combination of hardware and software, it should berecognized that other combinations of hardware and software are alsowithin the scope of the present invention. Embodiments of the presentinvention may be implemented only in hardware, or only in software, orusing combinations thereof.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that additions, subtractions, deletions, and other modificationsand changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broaderspirit and scope as set forth in the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method of facilitatingnavigation in an electronic environment, comprising: identifying aplurality of potential user interface transitions available to a user;selecting, based at least in part on data specific to the user and dataregarding a plurality of other users, a subset of the identifiedpotential user interface transitions available to the user; causing oneor more actions to be taken that result in acceleration of one or moretransitions of the selected subset upon selection by the user.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein identifying theplurality of potential user interface transitions available to the userincludes identifying, from a current user interface state, a pluralityof selectable user interface elements, each selectable to causenavigation to a corresponding user interface state.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data specific to theuser is a user type and wherein the data regarding the plurality ofother users comprises data aggregated based at least in part on pastnavigational behavior of one or more users having the user type.
 4. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data specific to theuser comprises data determined based at least in part on pastnavigational behavior of the user.
 5. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein selecting the subset of the identified potential userinterface transitions includes: ordering the plurality of user interfacetransitions based at least in part on the data specific to the user andthe data regarding the plurality of other users; and selecting thesubset based at least in part on positions in the ordered plurality ofuser interface transitions of members of the subset.
 6. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the potential userinterface transitions are transitions of an application utilized by anorganization and wherein the user and the other users use theapplication in connection with operations of the organization,
 7. Acomputer system for facilitating navigation, comprising: one or moreprocessors; and memory including instructions that, when executed by theone or more processors, cause the one or more processors to at least:identify potential user interface transitions available from aparticular state of a user interface being used by a user; select, basedat least in part on data specific to the user and data regarding aplurality of other users, a subset of the identified potential userinterface transitions; cause acceleration of one or more transitions ofthe selected subset upon selection by the user.
 8. The computer systemof claim 7, wherein causing acceleration of the one or more transitionsof the selected subset includes, prior to selection by the user of aparticular transition of the one or more transitions, causing data forthe particular transition to be cached.
 9. The computer system of claim7, wherein selecting the subset of the identified potential userinterface transitions includes: identifying a characteristic of theuser; identifying the plurality of users as users sharing the identifiedcharacteristic; and scoring, based at least in part on navigationalbehavior of the plurality of users in connection with the userinterface, the identified potential user interface transitions toproduce scores corresponding to the identified potential user interfacetransitions, wherein selecting the subset of the identified potentialuser interface transitions is based at least in part on the scores. 10.The computer system of claim 7, wherein the user interface is configuredto access a web-based application.
 11. The computer system of claim 7,wherein selecting the subset of the identified potential user interfacetransitions includes identifying a set of users that have navigated theuser interface to the particular state; and wherein selecting the subsetof the identified potential user interface transitions is based at leastin part on behavior of the identified set of users that have navigatedthe user interface to the particular state.
 12. The computer system ofclaim 7, wherein selecting the subset of the identified potential userinterface transitions includes determining a number of user interfacetransitions to cache based at least in part on an activity measurementof the user.
 13. The computer system of claim 7, wherein identifying thepotential user interface transitions includes accessing a model of anapplication operated by user interaction with the user interface. 14.One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media havingcollectively stored thereon instructions executable by one or moreprocessors of a computer system, the instructing including: instructionsfor identifying potential user interface transitions available from aparticular state of a user interface; instructions for selecting, basedat least in part on data specific to a user of the user interface anddata regarding a plurality of other users, a subset of the identifiedpotential user interface transitions; instructions for causingacceleration of one or more transitions of the selected subset uponselection by the user.
 15. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein causingacceleration of one or more transitions of the selected subset includescaching data for the one or more transitions prior to the selection bythe user.
 16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storagemedia of claim 14, wherein selecting the subset of the identifiedpotential user interface transitions includes identifying acharacteristic of the user and identifying the plurality of other usersas users sharing the characteristic with the user.
 17. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein thecharacteristic is a role of the user in an organization.
 18. The one ormore non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, furthercomprising instructions for determining, based at least in part on anactivity measurement of the user in connection with the user interface,a value determinative of a size of the subset, the subset being inaccordance with the value.
 19. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media of claim 18, wherein the value is anumber of transitions to cache.
 20. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media of claim 18, wherein the activitymeasurement is based at least in part on a frequency of transitionscaused by interaction with the user interface by the user.